Jim and I met on the internet - which is amazing to us, since we both are not very technology friendly people. We met in March of 2006 in person - and we moved in together 3 months later. We have now been together for 2 and a half years, and we decided it's time I made an honest man out of Jim.
We were both married once before...and didn't have a very good experience with marriage. Which is why we have both been single now for 18 years. We both have 2 grown children. I have two sons, Ben, 28, and Josh, 26. Jim has a son, Nicholas, 29, and a daughter, Jillian, 22. And we share my beautiful granddaughter, Madison, 2. She calls Jim "Happy", which fits him perfectly, and he couldn't love her more if she were his own.
At our age, we are looking forward to retiring together soon, and enjoying our life together to the fullest.
We will be getting married on November 1st with family and close friends in attendance. We have chosen Chesapeake because it is where we have decided to retire to since our house fire. We will celebrate with cocktails at 4:00 PM, followed by our wedding ceremony at 5PM. We hope that every one can stay after for cake and champagne.
We will have an amateur photographer taking pictures for us (thank-you, Sandy!) and we are anxious to get some family group shots done. Please join us if you can.
Jim and I will be leaving Dulles on Sunday, December 28, for Miami. We will depart from Miami the next afternoon at 4PM for our cruise on the Carnival ship Imagination. The next morning we will be sightseeing in Key West, and then we will depart for Cozumel, Mexico. We will arrive in Cozumel on Wednesday, where we will be sightseeing and shopping most of the day. We will set sail early in the evening and will celebrate New Year's Eve that night aboard ship. We will be at sea all of New Year's Day, sailing for Miami - so we can relax on board and rest and recuperate. We will arrive Friday morning in Miami and will leave the ship around 11AM - and later that day we will fly back and arrive at Dulles airport in the evening. Jim has to return to work on Sunday, and I will be back at school on Monday. We are really looking forward to what we hope is the trip of a lifetime!
We had talked and talked about how we wanted to get married, and we planned to just get married on the cruise and tell everyone when we arrived home...but we thought about it some more and knew we wanted our family and close friends to celebrate this big day with us. You're all so special to us, and we wanted you to share in our happiness. We've both been single for a long time, and it has taken me this long to realize that I not only did I want to spend the rest of my life with Jim - I wanted to spend it as his wife. Jim proposed to me over 2 years ago, and he has been very patient with me. He said he knew that sooner or later I'd be ready - and he was right! I know that he is a wonderful and special man, and he's definitely "a keeper". I don't know what I would have done without him these past 2 and a half years. He said he feels the same about me (thank goodness!). So please celebrate with us if you can and wish us love and luck on our new lives together. I don't think we'll need the luck, though, as we have the love already!
